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Lot Essay
We are very grateful to Laura Wortley for her assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for this and the following lot.
The present work was a commission for a friend's library. The artist produced several preparatory sketches including an oil sketch Across the Ford showing the bridge and the first two horses with the grey as a cart horse, and a full size pastel showing the horses and riders as they are in the finished work. Several of these elements were taken from earlier work that she had produced for Black Beauty. In 1915 Kemp-Welch was commissioned by the publishers J.M. Dent to illustrate the famous children's story and the headpiece for Chapter XII, 'A Stormy Day' features the same plank bridge, although the The River Way was not painted until 1934.
The present work was a commission for a friend's library. The artist produced several preparatory sketches including an oil sketch Across the Ford showing the bridge and the first two horses with the grey as a cart horse, and a full size pastel showing the horses and riders as they are in the finished work. Several of these elements were taken from earlier work that she had produced for Black Beauty. In 1915 Kemp-Welch was commissioned by the publishers J.M. Dent to illustrate the famous children's story and the headpiece for Chapter XII, 'A Stormy Day' features the same plank bridge, although the The River Way was not painted until 1934.